Friends creator scales new heights with autobiography
THE entrepreneur behind the revolutionary climbing device, the Friend has released an autobiographical account of his climbing adventures from all over the world.
Having been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at just 54, Cheshire-born Mark Vallance was robbed of his plans for an active retirement and found a new purpose as president of the British Mountaineering Council.
His book is named after his entrepreneurial brainchild, Wild Country and took two years to write. Wild Country is a personal story of his climbs from tackling 8,000-metre peaks to spending two years in Antarctica with the British Antarctic Survey.
Vallance strongly believes that the thrill of climbing is not knowing whether you’ll be able to complete it.
He said: “The bigger the objective, the more satisfying it is when you succeed. You’ve got to choose something you think you might not be able to do in order to make it satisfying.”
The Cheshire-born mountaineer says although his book is mainly aimed at climbers, “people who aren’t climbers have read the book and found it interesting.”
Wild Country also gives an insight into the dynamics of the outdoor industry and also describes how Vallance made his businesses so successful.
He is known for his camming device invention, the friend which featured on BBC’s science show, Tomorrow’s World in 1978. It transformed climbing, making the sport safer and helping to push the limits of the possible.
Vallance is not only the founder of the company that revolutionised climbing in the 1980s, but is also the founder of outdoor retailer Outside and part of the team that set up The Foundry – the first modern climbing gym in Britain – which paved the way for the popularity explosion of indoor climbing.
Even though Vallance has climbed mountains in the Himilayas, North America and Colorado and had great success in his career, he still has regrets.
He said: “I wanted to continue climbing forever. Two climbs in the world which I would have liked to have done one is called the Lotus Tower in Canada and the other is in North Wales, the Right Wall climb. That’s one I could and should have done but never quite got round to doing.”
The 70-year old who is now based in Sheffield even wishes he’d spent more time in his local national park, the Yorkshire Dales.
He added: “Walking was used to be for the upper middle class – they were the people that climbed the mountains. Nowadays with all the luxuries that we have, life is relatively easy compared to life in the past. Doing something you don’t think you can do is more important than having a good walk, it puts your life into perspective.”
